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September 2011

From the Editor

Every time I hit the elevator button in my office building, I am relieved that I’m traveling only to the tenth floor. I work in that rare L.A. edifice—a skyscraper—and as much as I enjoy studying city grids from above, I suffer a bit from vertigo. To be honest, I also suffer from a certain fear that was born ten years ago this month… Read

Features:

Breakfast in L.A.
We celebrate 20 fine slingers of the day’s most important meal, every dish on Nate ’n Al’s a.m. menu, and the best coffee, doughnuts, pancakes, and shakshouka in townEdited by Lesley Bargar Suter

Sand and Stone
Otherworldly and irreverent, some of the most innovative architecture in California is popping up in the High DesertBy Sam Lubell

What Happened to Mitrice Richardson?
When the young woman was arrested for skipping out on her dinner tab in Malibu, her family had no idea they would never again see her alive. Her body was found a year after sheriff’s deputies set her free. Why they let her go is just one in a cluster of mysteries surrounding her deathBy Mike Kessler

Enchanted Aisles
The selection is limited. The floors are cramped. Don’t even get us started on the parking. So how did Trader Joe’s become the envy of grocers around the country?By Dave Gardetta

The Lady in the Lake
Actress Lake Bell slips into the 1940s-style nipped waists and strong shoulders that have emerged this season

Columns:

Open CityAddictions weren’t always the tabloid fodder they are today—they were well-kept family secrets. Then first lady Betty Ford bravely revealed her ownBy Anne Taylor Fleming

Film & TV
ABC’s mockumentary-style Modern Family updates a sitcom staple with gay parents and mixed couples. But its greatest strength? The writingBy Steve Erickson

L.A. Fiction
Araceli keeps her employers’ Orange County house spotless–if only their personal lives were as orderly. An excerpt from The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar

Speak Easy
Between the McCourt divorce, the beating of a Giants fan, the bankruptcy, and the lousy stats, this year has been a doozy for the Dodgers. Manager Don Mattingly takes our questionsBy Jim Rosenthal

Cut!
Spoiler Web sites can kill the surprise by giving away TV plotlines. Producers are figuring out how to use them to their advantageBy Miriam Datskovsky

Dine
The Royce is elegant through and through, from the renovated room to the calibrated cooking of chef David FéauBy Patric Kuh